After graduating from New York University with a degree in journalism and political science in 1983, Shaun Assael went to work as a crime and court reporter for newspapers in Florida. Next, he covered state prisons for the
Journal News (a Gannett Westchester newspaper) and New York courts for the weekly
Manhattan Lawyer (then part of
American Lawyer Media).
Freelancer As a freelancer, Shaun Assael was a regular contributor to
The Village Voice, The
New York Observer, and
7 Days magazine. His work has appeared in publications such as
The New York Times,
Esquire,
New York,
Smart Money,
Maxim, ''Men's Fitness
, Rolling Stone
, Board Member
, and The Daily Beast''. A July 2007
Glamour (magazine) feature about the 1979 gang rape and murder of
Hope College student Janet Chandler won a third place national Headliner Award for Magazine Writing & Reporting.
ESPN Shaun Assael joined the development team that launched
ESPN The Magazine in March 1998. As a senior writer, he has covered a wide range of subjects with a focus on crime reporting, including: the
Securitas depot robbery, the largest cash robbery in British History pulled off by UFC star "Lightning"
Lee Murray; the
2015 FIFA corruption case, and NFL pro
Marvin Harrison's involvement in a
shooting incident in Philadelphia. His profile of
Indianapolis Colts owner
Jim Irsay's battle with drugs was listed in
USA Today For the Win's list of top sports stories of 2014. Dubbed the magazine's "longtime steroid expert" by the
Wall Street Journal, Assael has covered some of the sport world's most notorious scandals involving performance-enhancing drugs. In December 2004, his interview with
BALCO Labs founder
Victor Conte revealed Conte's allegations of PED use by Olympic track and field athlete
Marion Jones. On December 13, 2007, Assael broke the news that Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens would be implicated in the
Mitchell Report in a story dictated to his editor from the backseat of a taxi. For an ESPN special report on steroids in
Major League Baseball, Assael, along with colleagues Peter Keating and Jon Pessah, took first place for magazine writing and reporting of a major news event in the 2006 National Headliner Award. As a member of ESPN's Enterprise Unit, he is a regular contributor to ESPN network's
Outside the Lines and has made appearances on
E:60. His 2015
Outside the Lines investigation of the suspicious hanging death of a North Carolina teen Lennon Lacy won the Bronze World Medal for best sports journalism at the 2016 New York Festival TV & Film Awards, third place in the 2016 National Headliner Award for sports or human interest feature, and a Silver Radio winner for documentary on social issues from the 2016 World's Best Radio Competition. == Author ==